| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: rolled up, and all my gold.
"I went to Milan, no one molested me, my affair in nowise interested
the State.--One small observation before I go further," he continued,
after a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at
the time of conception or in the months before birth can influence her
child, this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a
passion for gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for
gold which must be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life
for me, that I have never been without it; I must have gold to toy
with and finger. As a young man I always wore jewelry, and I carried
two or three hundred ducats about me wherever I went."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: don't know at all!"
"Oh, I have a good few other things to do," she reminded him,
as she fumbled again inside the obscurity of the desk.
"I can put my hand on any one of four thousand books
in stock," she mildly boasted over her shoulder,
"and that's something you never learned to do. And I can
tell if a single book is missing--and I wouldn't trust
any shopman I ever knew to do that."
"Oh of course, you're an exception," he admitted,
under a sense of justice. "But I wish you'd find the card."
"I know where it is," she suddenly announced,
The Market-Place |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: which have followed the beast until they finally come up with
him. So men and women in rivalry ran forward without delay to
where the giant lay face downward. The daughter comes running,
and her mother too. And the four brothers rejoice after the woes
they have endured. As for my lord Yvain they are very sure that
they could not detain him for any reason they might allege, but
they beseech him to return and stay to enjoy himself as soon as
he shall have completed the business which calls him away. And
he replies that he cannot promise them anything, for as yet he
cannot guess whether it will fare well or ill with him. But thus
much did he say to his host: that he wished that his four sons
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: many shops, which amuse the eye, as if ennui were the one thing to be
dreaded by the social world of the liveliest and most stirring capital
in Europe. Why is there nothing of an inner life? nothing which leads
to revery, nothing reposeful? Why indeed? Because no one in our day is
sure of the future; we are living our lives like prodigal annuitants.
One morning Clementine appeared to be thinking of something. She was
lying at full length on one of those marvellous couches from which it
is almost impossible to rise, the upholsterer having invented them for
lovers of the "far niente" and its attendant joys of laziness to sink
into. The doors of the greenhouse were open, letting the odors of
vegetation and the perfume of the tropics pervade the room. The young
|
